Army Corps shares plans for sand replenishment

SOLANA BEACH -- After getting a sneak peak at the Army Corps of
Engineers plans to protect crumbling coastal bluffs in Solana Beach
and Encinitas, some could not contain their enthusiasm.

"This is major," said Solana Beach City Manager Barry Johnson,
breaking into a wide smile.

Johnson's remark, made Saturday at a six-hour public workshop,
came after Bruce Williams, an engineer with the Corps, said coastal
erosion in the area is severe enough to justify a federally-funded
sand-replenishment program that would buffer cliffs from the
ocean's destructive energy.

"It would be designed to last 50 years," Williams said, adding
that he hopes the Corps will begin a regular sand replenishment
program in 2005 or 2006.

He cautioned everyone present Saturday that the program is
preliminary, and said that the Corps will publish a draft report
recommending a comprehensive sand replenishment program to Congress
in the spring.

More than 90 people at the meeting immediately began to discuss
the news in hushed voices.

"This is wonderful news," added Councilman Joe Kellejian.

In 1996 Williams said the Corps conducted its first
"reconnaissance study" to determine just how bad coastal erosion
was in Solana Beach and Encinitas. He said the Corps is near the
conclusion that a thick barrier of sand, measuring between 200 and
600 feet wide, would help reduce the coastal erosion that has
brought the precipice closer and closer bluff-top homes.

Several cliff collapses last winter added urgency to the city's
long debate over how best to prevent coastal erosion. For years
home owners, represented by a group called the Beach and Bluff
Conservancy, have clashed with coastal activists who advocate a
policy of "managed" or "planned retreat."

Saturday's workshop was the second of two in-depth discussions
between rival factions designed to present the facts to the public
before the City Council decides how to craft a local coastal plan
for Solana Beach. Every coastal city in San Diego County except
Solana Beach already has its own local coastal plan. The document,
which is a road map for coastal development and shoreline
protection, is mandated by the California Coastal Commission.

Saturday two local organizations, the Surfrider Foundation and
Calbeach Advocates, a home grown coastal activists group, presented
their ideas for a "managed retreat" philosophy of coastal
management that would set a 75-year time limit on seawalls build in
Solana Beach.

Both organizations have long held that bluff-top homeowners have
no right to build seawalls on the public beach and that the city's
local coastal program should contain language that puts a time
limit on coastal protective structures that keep the ocean at
bay.

On the other hand, Beach and Bluff Conservancy members have
urged the City Council to include language that makes it easier for
them to build and maintain seawalls. In the last Solana Beach
regular election, members of the conservancy accused members of
Calbeach Advocates of trying to make sure their homes end up in the
ocean.

Scott Williams, a founder of Calbeach Advocates, said Saturday
that the latest news from the Army Corps of Engineers proves that
putting time restrictions on seawalls could work in conjunction
with an aggressive program of sand replenishment.

"The enemy keeps saying that all we want to do is throw their
homes into the ocean," Williams said. "But we think sand
replenishment is a good idea. We have always thought it was a good
idea."